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The basic fixie can get fancy

For the last five years, this column has avoided covering one of the hottest youth-culture urban crazes in the bike world: the fixie — a minimalist, single-speed bike with a fixed gear and no brakes. Some people like them ugly, others gaudy and others tricked-out with doodads and custom paint jobs. To be honest, I thought these bikes, which have introduced thousands of former non-cyclists to two wheels, were dumb deathtraps (hey, no brakes?) and that the fad would disappear along with the first crash.

Well, fixie-mania keeps growing, and a big reason for it is that the bikes are getting fixed. Riders and manufacturers, responding to public safety laws and common sense, have added brakes, multi-gear hubs, freewheels and fluorescent night-light paint. This makes for safer, more practical bikes that are faster, can coast and are more enjoyable to ride — all while keeping the minimalist and mandatory fixie look.

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Vintage bike museum in Ariz. includes work stations

Any grown-up who opens the door to the Oldspokes Classic Bicycle Museum is sure to find a bike that produces a wave of nostalgia.

From the 1940s Monarks to the 1970s BMX bikes, nearly 100 velocipedes in the museum span a century of riding for pleasure and work.

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Bikes rise from New York basements

Jonathan Figueroa paused, looking down more than 100ft to the East River below, and panted: “This is new. It’s tough.”

Past him on the cycle path of the Manhattan Bridge – which Mr Figueroa would normally cross on a D line subway train on the way to Hunter College on Manhattan’s upper west side – pedalled a steady stream of cyclists.

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Can America Embrace Biking the Way Denmark Has?

It’s a Monday morning in Copenhagen, and I’m tearing down a street called Rolighedsvej on my clunky steel rental bike, trying to make it to a meeting for which I’m nearly certain I’ll be late. As I zip along the beautifully maintained bike lanes, it strikes me that I’ve never had a city biking experience quite like this. Not only do I feel totally safe and secure, but I’m able to get to my destination faster and at a fraction of the difficulty and cost than if I were driving a car.

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